Ten Million Throwaways Director Takes Aim at Porn, Sex Trafficking

Director Andrew Douglas has just wrapped production on a mini-series documentary that shows the ties between the pornography industry and human trafficking which generate thirty-two billion dollars a year. With White Shadow Films, the Australian-born Douglas interviews various notable subjects and shares pertinent facts in explaining how the two are connected. Thanks to the narration of well-known tough guy actor Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Donnie Brasco, The Hateful Eight, Kill Bill, Sin City), the audience for Ten Million Throwaways will be even broader. Now, Douglas shares the story of the documentary with ScreenFish.

Just prior to starting development on Ten Million Throwaways, Douglas was supposed to produce and direct a television series about several famous athletes. When the funding fell through, he was looking around at what other stories were worthwhile telling. With pornography, Doughlas found a subject that people were reluctant to talk about.

“Over sixty percent of households are in the grip of a secret pornography addiction,” Douglas shared. “The whole concept for the television miniseries changed dramatically with the more and more research I carried out into this secretive and exploitive world. The real turning point came when I learned that children as young as five and six years old are frequently being exposed to hard-core online pornography.”

“I am a father of two young children around those age brackets, so there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to make this project. Hopefully Ten Million Throwaways exposes the ugly truth and helps families and individuals escape a devastating addiction that is strangling the life out of them.”

Douglas said that the documentary form of storytelling was obvious to him, and that they were able to interview six people impacted by porn from different perspectives. Some of the interviewees were addicted to porn; others were on camera being exploited several times a day. Douglas said finding the right people and filming their honest stories were crucial to the series.

“My casting director, Emily Hibard, has substantial contacts in the adult entertainment industry and with her help we managed to reach out to people we thought would bring something unique and honest to the table,” he said. “I spent six months building relationships with them prior to shooting. The stories that these people shared were nothing short of gut-wrenching. As a director, I have a responsibility to each and every one of them to make sure their stories are presented in a one-hundred percent truthful way on the screen.”

As we discussed the project, I questioned how Douglas could make the film about porn without making it voyeuristic, or make it porn itself. While it will most likely receive an R-rating due to the nature of what is discussed, Douglas said they strove to make it solid art.

“Yes, this was something that I really had to be conscious about,” admitted the writer/director. “From the start of pre-production, we were trying to figure out how to tell a compelling story without making it just like another sexually suggestive film. I think we achieved what we set out to do, by crafting a solid story that takes viewers all the way back to the origins of pornography/trafficking in America.”

Scientifically, Douglas says that porn twists your brain – and then leads to a series of decisions that lead to even more complicated moral decisions.

“After someone has been looking at porn for a considerable amount of time, the images start to change the neurological pathways in the brain – to put simply, the brain gets rewired, much like that of a drug addict. The natural progression, after being enveloped in a world of fantasy for so long, is for a person to seek out physical experiences where they can perform all the acts they have seen on screen. The most common outcome for a porn addict is to see a prostitute or trafficked victim. The wife will say, ‘NO,’ to these types of requests, but trafficked women can’t say no. Its a simple business transaction in the addict’s mind to fulfill their perverse fantasies.”

While pornography twists people’s minds, and keeps them addicted, there is hope – one of the principal things Douglas wants to get across. “One of the people we interviewed in the show is Patrick Trueman, who is the president of the National Centre On Sexual Exploitation, based in Washington D.C.,” explained Douglas. “He talks about many proven solutions in the episodes, but one of the main topics he raises, around the issue of addiction, is faith. There are countless books, online courses, and support groups trying to tackle the porn pandemic – but the only people he sees truly recover are people of faith. I would say to Christians who can’t seem to shake their porn addiction, is to do a 40 day fast, with an accountability partner. It may sound extreme, but in the Bible Jesus clearly says that some things can’t be broken or cast out simply by praying.”

“Every phone, tablet, computer and laptop has billions of porn images and videos just one click away. I hope that when viewers watch each episode in consecutive order, they become a little more educated and come to understand what’s really going on in the porn industry and behind closed doors. From the addict/consumer perspective, I hope parents that give their five-to-ten year olds an iPad to play on are supervising their kids when they go online. This show will hopefully make them more aware of the dangers. I’ve heard too many stories over the last several years where kids as young as three to four years old are innocently playing a game online and then out of no where, an invasive pop-up ad appears. Long story short – the child clicks and becomes addicted from a very young age.”

For those who haven’t experienced a pornography addiction, Douglas says that guarding your heart is paramount to avoiding the trap.

“Like God, porn is almost omnipresent. So people have to be super conscious to guard their hearts more and more in this day and age. I think there is still hope out there, and as long as we have faith in God and surrender everything to Him, we can live a life free of porn addiction. If churches in particular start talking about it more, in a sensitive way, where there’s no judgement or shame, I think churches would find a lot of healthy conversation-starters. With God, genuine relationships and accountability I think people should have hope. Nothing is impossible!”